


Behind the Masks

by Somnorum_Liber



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Big Brother Shiro (Voltron), Bullied Keith (Voltron), Crying Keith (Voltron), Gen, He has them for a reason, Insecure Keith (Voltron), Insecurity, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) has masks, Lonely Keith (Voltron), Orphan Keith (Voltron), Platonic Relationships, Smart Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 00:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11242011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somnorum_Liber/pseuds/Somnorum_Liber
Summary: They don't see through his masks. As far as they're concerned, he is of average intelligence at most, but that's fine with Keith. After all, he has masks for a reason, and he won't lose the only people who (might even remotely) care about him by showing them what's under the masks.





	Behind the Masks

**Author's Note:**

> A work based off of one of my many Voltron headman headcanons, this work being based off a headcanons that Keith is actually very smart but feels that he needs to hide it because of incidents in the past.
> 
> If you find any errors in spelling or grammar, please let me know.

His team hasn't seen through his masks yet. To Keith, that's a blessing. After all, he has his masks for a reason, and he is certain that no one needs to see what's underneath them. They don't need to know how insecure and powerless he feels. They don't need to see that he is weak and broken, and they most certainly don't need to know that so many of his problems were caused by his elementary school classmates. They would just see how pathetic and unworthy he was.

Even now, the words of those children haunted him. They crept into his mind silently, disrupting his current thoughts and replacing them with never-ending taunts and jeers. Their words would even infiltrate his dreams, unfailingly turning the most pleasant of dreams to the most horrifying of nightmares.

He knew he was weak and pathetic, the most unworthy of the paladins. He didn't belong with them. He had nothing to offer. Shiro had leadership and wisdom. Lance had charisma and humor. Pidge had intelligence and knowledge. Hunk had creativity and strength.

What did Keith have? His inability to work with others? His apathetic and reckless nature? His anger issues?

Something in the back of his mind whispered that he had more, so much more, but that was a lie. He had buried the only thing he could possibly offer under so many masks that he wasn't even sure if he still had it. The whisper told him that he did, and all it would take to recover it would be to attempt to use it.

That was problematic. 

The last times he had used it, he had been chased from his elementary school all the way to his room in the orphanage, being called degrading names all the while. He sat in his room and cried the first time, but by the fifth time, he had realized that there was no point. At some point well past the twentieth time, he realized that there was simply no point. He could end the pain now by shutting it away and never using it again. He could stop the hurtful teasing and the biting insults. He could end it all.

So he did.

He locked it away, buried it beneath countless masks, and shoved it out of his mind, but it was not enough. It would come back to haunt him in his dreams and slide into his thoughts. 

His anger made it even worse. During the midst of an argument or fight, it would come to him, begging to be released and used. He fought it every time, but he knew that he would unleash it someday, and that though terrified Keith.

A part of him wanted to release it, show his team that he did have something to offer, that he wasn't completely useless. It wanted to show his lion that he was worthy of being its paladin. It wanted to show Allura and Coran that he could help defeat Zarkon.

But he knew better. If he showed them, they would certainly leave him, and that thought was more than Keith could bear. He didn't want to lose the (closest thing to a) family that he had. He didn't want to lone what he had with his team, the bond they shared. He treasure them far to much to risk it.

But he knew that they would find out eventually.

It was an ordinary day when they discovered one of Keith's most closely guarded secrets.

The Paladins had just finished a lunch of food goo. The only thing they had to fill their day was training, but the Paladins had grown bored of the Training Deck and team building exercises, so Allura had suggested a game. Keith watched curiously as Allura and Coran set up the game on the table they had dined on minutes ago and explained the game. It was a trivia game, much to Lance's dismay, and focused on trivia about science, mathematics, and history. To Keith, it seemed very similar to Trivial Pursuit, following the same rules and game play but with different categories and no teams.

At the start of the game, Pidge easily took the lead, followed closely by Hunk, and Keith behind him. Lance quickly fell into last place, to the surprise of no one. Shiro was decent enough, and Allura and Coran were pretty good as well. 

What did seem to surprise the other players was that midway through the game, Keith took the lead easily. He had not missed a question yet. At the beginning, they had thought it was luck, but now it was obvious that either Keith was one of the luckiest people in the universe, or he had serious triva skills. Even his personality was different. He was no longer detached and distant. Instead, he was answering questions with passion and confidence, seeming more friendly and candid then they had ever seen him.

This new, intelligent Keith had shocked them. Gone was the average, somewhat oblivious red paladin. In his place was a smarter, more open Keith. Keith didn't even seem aware of the change.

Keith then proceeded to obliterate them and claim victory with no problems. Only after the game ended did Keith seem to notice that something had happened. There was a brief flash of panic in his eyes, but he noticed that no one was going to talked about what happened, so he relaxed.

Until Lance decided to bring it up.

"Hey, Keith! Why didn't you tell us that you were, like, a trivia champion?! I mean, seriously! You couldn't give use a little warning that we had no chance of winning?" Lance groaned.

Keith froze. There was no way he could answer that without telling them about what he had hidden so carefully. "I'm not a trivia champion, Lance. I just got easy questions. That's all. It was all luck."

Shiro looked at him thoughtfully, "I don't think that's the case. Some of those questions seemed pretty difficult. Besides, there's no need to be embarrassed that you're good at trivia. There's no shame in having a great amount of knowledge, you know."

"So you're a nerd?" Lance grinned widely, his smile playful.

"I don't want to talk about this," Keith hissed lowly, getting up to leave.

"Why's that?" Lance smiled as he tackled Keith to the ground.

"I just don't!" Keith growled as he struggled beneath Lance.

Pidge looked at him pointedly, "We're all part of the same team. There shouldn't be any secrets between us."

"I don't care! Get off of me, Lance!" Shoving the blue paladin away, Keith got to his feet and fled.

Hunk's concerned gaze followed him out of the room. "Maybe someone should go after him. He looked pretty upset."

"I'll go," Shiro said has he stood and followed Keith.

The rest of the group nodded a day busied themselves with cleaning up the game. Lance cast one more curious look the way Keith had fled before slipping out of the room entirely.

Shiro had lost Keith rather quickly due to the red paladin's speed, but Shiro knew Keith well enough to guess where he might go. 

Shiro entered the Training Deck to find Keith in the far corner of the room, curled into a ball and sobbing softly. Shiro frowned at the obvious display of emotion. Keith was never very open, especially with his emotions, but here he was, curled in a ball and sobbing.

Shiro quickly crossed the room and knelt down beside the smaller paladin. "Keith?"

Keith head shot up, and his bloodshot eyes met Shiro's. "What do you want?" He hiccuped, "Are here to kick me out?"

"No, no. Of course not, Keith. Where would you get an idea like that?"

"Because it's what always happens," he murmured. "They see what a freak I am and don't want me around. Can't say I blame them, though."

Disapproval and anger flooded Shiro's eyes, and Keith knew that his time as a paladin had come to an end.

'"Who called you a freak?" Shiro asked, careful to control his anger.

"Everyone did. They thought it was weird that I knew things they didn't. They thought it wasn't right. They hated me because I knew stuff that they didn't! They mocked me and beat me because I was smarter than them! They hated me so much because of something I couldn't control," he inhaled deeply, brushing away more tears that had fallen, "so I stopped. I stopped answering, thinking. I stopped being smart, and they left me alone."

Keith began to unfurl himself, intending to rise to his feet and leave. 

Instead, Shiro's strong arms wrapped around him, embracing him tightly. 

"You're not a freak, Keith. You're a paladin. It doesn't matter how smart you are. No one here will mock you for being intelligent. You can be as smart as you want, Keith. It doesn't matter to us." Shiro whispered warmly into Keith's ear.

The younger paladin buried his face in Shiro's shoulder and sobbed freely. Tears streamed down his face, tears of happiness, sorrow, and relief all at once. Shiro's flesh arm rubbed soothing circles on the smaller paladin's back. 

"It's alright, Keith. Everything's alright," the older paladin whispered.

They stayed on the Training Deck until Keith's tears stopped and exhaustion lulled him to sleep. Shiro pulled him into his arms and exited the deck, heading in the direction of Keith's room.

Unbeknownst to the red and black paladins, Lance had been standing outside the deck and heard their entire conversation. While he could have easily chosen to use what he had heard to teased Keith later, he decided against it. Instead, he found himself walking away with a new respect for Keith, something he didn't think possible. 

He watched Keith and Shiro disappear down the hallway before he began to walk to his room, Keith and Shiro's conversation and his new respect for Keith fresh in his mind.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear that this was meant to be a drabble, but instead, it turned into an entire work. Whoops. My bad.


End file.
